DANBURY -- Talent alone does not win championships. A team needs chemistry and camaraderie to excel in competition and overcome adversity. The New Milford field hockey team exemplifies these characteristics on a game-by-game basis and they did so again in Tuesday afternoon's 4-0 SWC victory over Immaculate on the road.

The Green Wave received four goals by as many players and saw another stout performance by goalkeeper Meeghan Doris, who her teammates affectionately call "Brick Wall" because of her uncanny ability to keep balls out of the net.

"One of the reasons why our offense is so good is because they have to face Meeghan during practice every day," said New Milford coach Dawn Hough. "There are no easy goals in practice because Meeghan isn't letting any in."

Doris' solid performance was assisted by a stingy defense in front of her that has only allowed seven goals all season. Throughout the game, Immaculate had difficulty in trying to set up in the attacking zone and this was all a product from New Milford's elite defense.

"Immaculate's a really good team, but we played some very smart field hockey and this gave us the opportunity to beat them," Hough said.

New Milford got the scoring started early in the first few minutes of the game on a goal by Julia Waldman. Later in the first half, Emily Sanders scored on one of many penalty corners.

The Green Wave added two more goals off penalty corners in the second half by Olivia Monteiro and Taylor Duffany. New Milford earned most of their corners through an offensive barrage that Immaculate was not able to defend well.

In a game featuring two one-loss teams coming into the action, New Milford seemed to dominate all aspects of the game. Immaculate coach Shannon Horosky knows that her team has plenty of work to do.

"Obviously they're New Milford and every time you play New Milford they find the chinks in your armor," said Horosky. "We have some issues on defense we have to work out."

Despite the loss, Horosky feels it was an important litmus test for her team.

"I think our team needs a loss every once in a while just to remind us that we're not going to into every game and be the top dog. If you go into every game and roll over teams you never find out what you need to work on."

Meanwhile, New Milford knows that the road to another championship is far from over.

"These guys are always hungry," said Hough. "They're never satisfied with what they do. They'll go home and be disappointed that they made some mistakes today. They don't look at just winning or losing. They don't say, `We're ahead by a goal, let's just let up and not play.' They're having fun everyday and trying to improve."